Ask the Author: Collins Hemingway
Answered Questions (9)
Collins Hemingway
Jen, the Regency period was very similar to today. Rapid change in technology was disrupting society; clashes between the have and have-nots; fights over voting rights; etc. Society was in transition, too, as businesspeople and a growing middle class began to affect culture and politics. A very exciting period in so many ways. And I've always loved the novels of Jane Austen, which took literature out of its infancy and marked the first realistic fiction in English. (Sorry for the delay in answering; somehow your query got lost in my email.) Best to you, Collins
Collins Hemingway
Probably the one I'm writing about, to find out what I got right and to meet in person the protagonist and find out what she was really like.
Collins Hemingway
Kathleen, sadly I thought the mystery was poor--so poor, that I didn't watch the BBC series that came out later based on the book. "Death Comes to Pemberley" turned out, I think, to be James' last novel, and perhaps it was either rushed or James wasn't at her best. The novel got generally good reviews, but I thought it was just slapped together.
Collins Hemingway
Curiosity about the history and science of the early 1800s, coupled with the desire to write about a strong female character when everything about life was against women--social customs, laws, biology. I wanted to throw everything against my protagonist and see how she would respond.
Collins Hemingway
To paraphrase Jane Austen, I am seldom in the mood to write so I write until the mood hits me.
Collins Hemingway
Volume 2 of The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen
Collins Hemingway
Writing programs almost always talk about style or character, but style is largely innate and character comes out only with action and thought. Action and thought occur only in the context of plot. Plot is the skeleton that supports the body of the story. Without a strong plot, your writing will be a puddle of protoplasm on the floor. Put together a strong plot, and let the characters engage in it.
Collins Hemingway
You don't have to dig ditches.
Collins Hemingway
I don't believe in writer's block. Not as a psychological problem. Writers get stuck because they don't know where their story is going. Work on your plot until you free yourself of the obstruction.
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